Remembering

I'm on the downhill side of middle-aged, and my memory is going down the hill with me. Why is it that some aspects of memory slip away just as others become more vivid?

When I was visiting my mother I confiscated another photo album. She's often told me to do so; there are so many photos and albums, and better to sort through them now than all at once, in a weepy hurry, after she dies. These albums bring back a flood of memories. This was a little album with a note from my daddy in the front: "May 1998 thru." His precise, architectural handwriting is easy to spot, especially years before a stroke made it wobbly.

1998 was a busy year. One granddaughter was born that May. Evidently that summer the two oldest grandchildren came to visit my parents at their home in the North Carolina mountains and attended camp. Afterward a grand road trip began -- my parents drove to West Virginia and then out to Iowa to return those two kids to their home. Along the way they visited other kids and grandkids. Here are a few photos from this album, hopefully in order:

My daddy with Kesse, oldest granddaughter

Daddy being silly with my kids, which was a regular occurrence when he was not yet elderly.
I think he and Mother took the kids on a hike in the Cradle of Forestry.

Two Iowa cousins playing with three younger West Virginia cousins.
Cousin ties are strong in our family, mostly thanks to efforts by my daddy, like this road trip.

One of my all-time favorite family pics.
The expression on my daddy's face shows exactly how he felt about family, grandkids, and life in general.

Back in Iowa, three sisters lounge in a pool in Independence.

I sometimes wonder now how the kids remember these days, but this photo shows how I remember it: Peter snuggled in his grandmother's lap. Lorien snuggled in mine. Cousins huddled together in fun. Family together. My daddy's hands around it all. The children's days were full of play and hours of freedom (and lots of beanie babies).

My daddy's 70th birthday party. Silly hats on grown men.

We spent a lot of time at my parents' mountain home.
 It was a place of safety, peace, and love for our family.
Yes, that's the kind of TV we had back then!
No cell phones. No internet. No facebook!

Our kids spent a lot of time outdoors playing at my parents' house.
I only regret that Julia wasn't born yet, or she would've been in the thick of things with these umbrellas!

My daddy was an over-comer. He had a rough childhood in a difficult family followed by two years of dangerous war in Korea. But he set his mind to having fun and family, and did his best to accomplish a life in which he poured his life into others. This was a challenge for him, but he tried. He was a doer -- he was not a man with deep emotional reserves to talk long into the wee hours of the night. (That was my mother.) He was the man who worked hard to provide the infrastructure of life -- home, trips, camp, good advice, church, financial help, keeping in touch, and more -- that eased the lives of others, especially his children and grandchildren. He had many people leaning on him, and it was never too much. 

I miss him every day. I wondered for a second why he's on my mind today. Then I realized his birthday is in two days. He would be 91 years old. He never expected to live as long as he did, but I think he stuck around to help everybody as long as he could. I never feel he's far away at all. And I don't feel that he's gone. The Bible says that we're surrounded by a "great cloud of witnesses" - those who've left this earth before us. Daddy's in that cloud of supporters, cheering me on. 

The Old House

This post is primarily for my parents.
Hello, Daddy and Mother. Here are some photos of your old house at Ridgehaven. As you see, they've stripped off the side porch and seem to be redoing it.

They've also put on a metal roof.

They are keeping the yard quite tidy, and all your rocks appear to be in place, Mother.

The azaleas are blooming well. And the rhododendron and mountain laurel are blooming now as well.

This bed is looking a little sadder, I think.

I did not knock on the door or sneak into the back yard. But hopefully this gives you an idea of how the old place is faring.

He's a Graduate!!!

We've come to the North Carolina mountains this weekend for a wonderful celebration -- Peter's graduation from Western Carolina University.

He's certainly made us proud! From a high school senior who didn't have a clue about what he wanted to do, Peter has turned into a phenomenal student with a drive to succeed academically and perform brilliantly for his professors. He's done great work in the College of Business as his work study and graduated magna cum laude with a double major in Business Law and Management.

Philip and Kara drove over from Chattanooga too -- that was wonderful! Philip's cheerful, funny conversation helps keep everybody in a happy spot while we visit, and I loved spending more time with Kara. It was a high point of my weekend.

We ate at Soul Infusion, a bistro and tea place in Sylva.

We ate outside because we had the puppies along.

Peter has been part of WCU's Honor's College, so he graduated with that group first at the ceremony. He was fourth to walk in. Philip captured it all on video (thank goodness!). Ramsey Arena was gorgeous -- I enjoyed the strong feel of ceremony and joy there. I met his favorite professor who told me, "You have a great son!"

Both my boys stopped at the same store and bought me the same bouquet of flowers for Mother's Day -- without meaning to! So sweet :) Oh how lovely to have one's children grown and to have them be kind, thoughtful, noble people. I'm proud of both my boys.

The flowers did survive the trip home and look lovely all together in a vase!

We came back to Ridgehaven for the night. Adam grilled us steaks and after dinner we roasted marshmallows and enjoyed s'mores around a lovely fire. Peter's friend Shani came. She's sweet and funny. I said something ridiculous that made Peter scrunch up his nose.

Philip has the established reputation for making the BEST roasted marshmallows in the family. Has a well-honed method over the coals.

However, he is aggressively challenged by his little brother.

This time, I'm inclined to side with Peter's marshmallow (the second one). It is his big weekend, after all, right?

We left Sunday morning but had difficulty getting into the groove of a LONG, 8-hour drive. So we stopped in Brevard with Philip and Kara for a bit. We sipped coffee at Quotations:

And stopped in at O.P. Taylor's toy store, of course. I think Julia and Philip were reliving a bit of childhood:

The obligatory photo with the nutcrackers:

We're back home now, with noses back to grindstones. It was a lovely weekend with almost all of my kids (we missed you, Anna!!), and reminded me that no matter where we go, or what we do, these folks are my peeps!!

All in the Family

What a busy few days! I nabbed one last photo with Peter before he left. There's his broken arm in its splint and sling. I was gonna crop the bottom off this photo, but then I decided you needed to see his bummed up knee too.

Today my mother is eighty years young. I wanted to take her out to lunch with the girls. Daddy was happy to stay home since we were going for Thai food. He doesn't tolerate spiciness at all. Pad Thai is a very unfancy restaurant, but the food was good.

You know me; I can't resist food photos ... that is, if I remember to take them! Here's Julia's plate of noodles, veggies, and fried tofu. She dislikes most meat, sometimes, when she's not in the mood for it, but she claims to like tofu. Whateveh. She's fourteen. She doesn't know her own mind.

This is Anna's dish. Anna was in seventh heaven simply because were in an Asian restaurant. Anna adores all things Asian. I looked over at her and asked her, "You feel at home when you're with Asian people, don't you?" And she replied, "Yes." That's just how she is. She loves Asian culture, Asian languages, Asian food, and especially Asians themselves. The white boys in the world are out of luck with this girl; she only has eyes for Asian guys.

Moving on. Here's my mother's lunch. That's bamboo, if you're wondering.

And mine -- I always look for something with pineapple, which I love.

Daddy surprised us all and offered to take us out for dinner in the evening! So darling mother didn't have to cook at all on her birthday, which is a nice gift in itself. We went to Marco's Trattoria, and since we'd had a pretty filling lunch, we ladies ordered appetizers or split items, and it was very delicious. We had hot chai, pizza, French onion soup, and Julia had a fried portabella mushroom. Very nice! They brought Mother a strawberry gelato for her birthday, which Julia enjoyed thoroughly.

Of course I forgot to take photos of the food, but our server obliged by taking this photo.
I probably won't see Anna again before she leaves for her summer internship in China in late June. It makes me a little sad and anxious to realize I have to say a sufficient good-bye now, when I'm not really prepared to do it. She's such a little thing to be traveling across the globe, but she's so very excited to go. She'll be teaching English to Chinese school teachers -- mostly conversational English, but also some grammar and fielding questions from them. But I'll tell you more about that adventure in another post soon.
Home tomorrow! I'm so ready to see Adam and the puppies. Dorothy was right. There's no place like home.

Good-bye Until Summer

I'm in the North Carolina mountains for a few days. I've come to gather a few possessions that still reside in my parents' basement, and to spend a few precious days with my two college kids.

This was last night's sunset.

Palest pink looking east ~

Julia and Anna painted last night. Julia helped Anna with some items for her trip to China this summer.

Julia and Peter played lots of chess -- they both enjoy it. Here, it appears Julia slew her brother. Peter's in a sling because he broke his shoulder while riding his longboard at college.

My mother and Peter share the same birthday on Monday. This is their cake. Peter wanted a vanilla cake, and I wanted chocolate icing. But he didn't want chocolate, so I made a whipped cream icing with strawberries on one side.

Too many candles!

The birthday girl and boy :) Aren't they adorable. I ought to find and post the first picture of these two, when he was only minutes old. I'm sure it's buried in an album somewhere.

This is a millisecond before a billow of smoke came at me ...

I'm sure it'll be another lovely sunset tonight. Peter has left to return to college. He'll finish up this semester in the blink of an eye and come out to Oriental with us for the summer sometime in mid-May. That made it easier to say good-bye to my handsome boy.